Stockholm Syndrome

It bothered me all day. I annoyed Jayce all day, trying to make him tell me what had happened. We were back on speaking terms but it still wasn’t the same. He definitely wouldn’t confide in me about what happened to his face. He told me it was nothing but to me a black eye was something. That and I noticed the snickers the rest of the guys gave behind his back. It made me feel like I was out of the loop and no matter what I did no one would tell me. By the time dad picked me up from school that afternoon I was fuming with frustration. Dad didn’t ask though I was grumbling to myself the whole way to the doctor. I got the feeling he knew more than I did and that only upped my frustration.

The whole time the doctor cut the cast off my leg I pondered the thought. Who would want to hurt Jayce? It seemed inconceivable to me that someone would want to give my best friend a black eye. It preoccupied me for the whole examination on my leg and the doctors lecture on to be careful with it. He wasn’t going to put another cast on it thankfully. So instead of hobbling out of the doctors, I walked.

It felt good and picked my mood up off the floor.
Daniel helped. When I got home he was in a good mood and jumped me at the door. He threw me over his shoulder and carried me down to out room wanting to play. Buddy quickly joined in, jumping all over us and barking playfully. Thankfully that distracted Daniel’s energy off me and he and Buddy started wrestling and playing as I watched on.

“Had a good day?” I chuckled and he nodded.

“Yeah, just…happy I guess,” he replied grabbing at Buddy’s snot as he tried to bite him. “What about you?”

I grimaced. “Sorta…all I did was study for exams tomorrow, but Jayce…he had a black eye and won’t tell me how he got it. It’s frustrating.”

Daniel choked on a laugh and quickly hid it. I glared and he looked away guiltily.

“I know you don’t like him but his my friend,” I said.

“I know,” Daniel replied. “But maybe he deserved it.”

“Daniel,” I scolded and he laughed.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” he said crawling over to lie on top of me. “Forget about him.”
I did very quickly.

The week past slowly. I spent most my time over books and exams. I thought I did well on most the exams but that was never a good sign. It had all been too easy, I was obviously doing something wrong. Then every night I’d come home to fall asleep in Daniel’s lap on the couch.

Friday night I was disappointed to come home and find my pillow wasn’t home. I grumbled all the way down to my bedroom. I’d forgotten that Daniel wouldn’t be home until tomorrow. He was working with his uncle on a large job a fair distance away. So instead of traveling each day they went this morning and were planning on staying until tomorrow night. I missed him already. I fell back on my bed and Buddy was quick to jump up and lay beside me. I reached down and absentmindedly scratched his head. I had no Daniel and no homework. I had nothing to occupy myself tonight. It looked like I was in for a night of boredom. Even dad wasn’t going to be home. He said he was working, I wasn’t stupid. He was going out with Sam.

Sighing I pulled myself up again and decided to try and fill the time with meaningless tasks until it was a decent time to go to bed.
I washed Buddy and did half the dishes before I got bored, then distracted. I flopped down onto the couch and flicked through the channels to quickly to see what was on. The next time I went through I went slowly and picked out a movie by its title. Buddy curled up in my lap having forgiven me for the bath. Within the first five minutes the movie had me hooked. It was interesting with good a good plot so far. I had no intention of getting up until it was over. But as it started to get darker outside, the movie started getting scarier and creepier. I turned the lamp on beside me and cuddled Buddy closer as if the small puppy could protect me from the mass murders on screen.

Suddenly a loud knock echoed through the house. I jumped nearly three feet in the air, so did Buddy. I sat upright and looked around breathing heavily. Trying to calm myself. Just a movie I chanted in my head. I had to be hearing things. I waited listening hard for anything but it was silent. I slumped back slowly and glance around the dark room contemplating whether or not I should turn the movie off. A low snarl ripped through Buddy’s lips making me jump again. His eyes were trained outside, I swallowed the hard lump in my throat. Quickly I changed the channel so the woman’s screaming would stop. I got up and padded across the lounge room to flick the light on just as another bang rippled through the house. I cussed loudly and looked out the large windows, in the direction of the noise.

There was probably just a bird or something outside I told myself. Or another dog had wondered into our yard. No big deal. I was never going to watch a scary movie without Daniel again.
I almost screamed when there was a knock on the front door. There was no way that couldn’t be human. It played a tune. Without hesitation I picked up the black poker from beside the fireplace and walked over slowly. I placed one foot strategically behind the door before I opened it just a few inches. Laughter drifted through the gap and I frowned, then glared. Shane and Ethan were rolling around in fits of laughter. I hated my friends.

“You two are so fucking dead,” I threatened making sure they seen the thick black poker in my hand.

“Put it down you loser,” Shane laughed keeping his distance. “It was just a joke.”

“Oh so funny,” I grumbled.

“Sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves,” Ethan laughed wiping at his eyes. “We seen you were watching...oh it was too good to pass up.”

“I hate you.”

“Whatever you love me,” Shane said pushing passed and entering my house.

I sighed and pushed back the temptation to take him out while his back was turned. Buddy on the other hand had no reservations. He barked and snarled being the big guard dog he was. Shane stopped.

“Will it bite me?”

“Hopefully,” I replied. “Why are you guys here anyway?”

I slumped down on the couch and Ethan joined me. Shane hesitated then sat in my lap.
“Bored,” Ethan replied as I tried to push Shane off me with no avail.

“There’s nothing to do,” Shane beside.

“So you came to scare the shit out of me?”

“No that was just a bonus,” Shane replied seriously. “We were looking for Jayce, have you see him?”

“Why would he be here?” I asked and they shrugged.

“We didn’t think he’d be here, we’re bored and have a car.”

I laughed. “Fair enough. Do you guys know what happened to his eye?” I was going to find out one way or another.

“You don’t know?” Ethan smirked and I shook my head.

“No everyone leaves me out of the loop.”

“Probably for good reason,” Shane said and I glared.

“Don’t do that,” Shane said. “You scare me.”

I snorted. “Tell me.”

“Okay okay, Jayce and Daniel got into a fight.”

“What!...when?”

“We went around to your place on the weekend. Daniel answered the door and said you weren’t there. Jayce was being a dick and gave him a mouthful of attitude and for the first time he didn’t take. Daniel had a snap had him…I don’t know it didn’t make sense to us. Jayce seemed to know what he was talking about though. Jayce snapped back and Daniel told him to leave,” Shane explained.

“Jayce started it,” Ethan added. “He shoved Daniel, Daniel shoved him back and went to walk away but Jayce kept it going.”

“Jayce was in the wrong but he got it good,” Shane smirked. “I know his my friend but he kinda deserved what he got.”

Ethan noted my confused expression and explained. “Jayce hit Daniel twice and Daniel only hit him once but it was a good one. Gave Jayce a black eye and knocked him on his ass.”

~~~~

Daniel sighed. “I didn’t want to tell you.”

I had waited all of three seconds after Daniel had walked in the door the next day to harass him about what I’d learnt. Which considering I’d been up all night thinking about it was a long enough wait in my opinion. I wanted to know exactly why they’d hit each other.

“What?”

He took my hand and pulled me down to our room. I fell back on the bed and waited for him to lay down beside me. I turned my head to look at him. He look tired from his long work days but I could see the concern showing through.

“Jayce is the noises around you window at night,” he said softly.

I was stunned.

“I seen him that first night, after he threw that rock at me. He took off pretty quick but I seen him.”

“His been sneaking around my window?” I asked shocked and he nodded.

“I seen him the next day and gave it to him. I told him if I ever seen him doing it again I’d knock his block off and tell you exactly what kind of sick pervert he was.”

“Shit.”

“Then he came around here with the other guys and gave me a mouthful. He wouldn’t do it when it was one on one. Only when he had his friends around him. I was so pissed off I didn’t take it and snapped back at him…he hit me so I hit him back. He can’t hit for shit,” Daniel laughed.

“I can’t believe he’d do that,” I muttered and Daniel rolled over onto his side. Putting one of his hands on my stomach.

“Don’t worry bub,” He replied softly. “He won’t do it again as far as I’m concerned from now on if he even looks at you sideways I’ll beat him.”

Little did I know Jayce was the least of my worries.

Things changed over the last half of the year. School pushed as more into our studies meaning any form of social life was slowly being pushed out for year twelve. Daniel was working full time with his uncle who was quite happy to have decent help. Dad and Sam finally made it official and stopped trying to keep me out of the loop. I was right, he had been trying not upset me. he thought I’d be upset he was starting a new relationship so he was surprised when I rolled my eyes with a ‘about time’.

He was happy with her and I was happy for him. He and mum might not have worked out but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be happy.
I had been seeing my mother every second weekend. It was usually a good easy weekend until she brought up Jackson. She wanted me to meet my ‘father’. I didn’t want to and he understood that. Hence why he wasn’t around while I was there for the weekend. He was giving me space while mum wanted us to play happy families, which I didn’t think was ever going to happen.

And as for Jayce. We were still friends…though the best part was in question. I didn’t call him my best friend anymore. I think he knew I knew, I didn’t tell him I knew but my behavior probably did. We sat next to each other in class and talked…but it wasn’t the same. Finally he started to back off and I was grateful for that. So was Daniel who was still on the warpath. If Jayce ever showed his face around out house, Daniel wasn’t happy and made sure he knew it.

When the summer holidays came around I was given a stack of homework to do. The teachers seemed to think we had nothing better to do with our Christmas holidays. They said they were preparing us for year twelve. I thought we needed a break. So I took to doing two hours of homework a day. Daniel usually helped me if he wasn’t working. He was pretty smart when he wanted to be.

Christmas came around quickly and for the first time in years I enjoyed it. Mostly because of the atmosphere. Dad and happy with Sam, I was happy with Daniel. Everything just worked out. Until I went to see mum on boxing day. Daniel came with me, we both thought it was going to be alright. The first indication I had that something wasn’t right was when we pulled up. I studied the cars in the driveway.

“What’s up?” Daniel asked as he shut off his car.

“That’s mums car,” I pointed out. Then pointed at the silver sedan beside it. Shiny and new. “And I have no idea who that belongs to.”

He frowned. “Who else would be here, has she got other family?”

“Not that would come, she said this was just going to be our family….”

It hit. Who else would she count as ‘our’ family. But she wouldn’t just dump that on me would she. Unless she knew I wouldn’t come if I knew he was here. I think Daniel realized at the same time I did. His hand drifted over and rested on my knee in a comforting fashion.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said.

“I have to get it over with sometime,” I muttered.

“If this gets too much…I’ll take you home. You just have to ask,” He said. “I don’t care I’ll be rude.”

I cracked a smile. Slowly I pulled myself up and out of the car. Daniel followed. We walked up the path and he took my hand gently. My heart started beating hard in my throat. Some more warning would have been nice. I was meeting my birth father. This was big. I hesitated to knock and Daniel put his arm around me.

“It’s alright, do you want to go. We’ll boycott and go to Macca’s.”
I shook my head. “I’m okay,” I sighed.

He glanced at me and waited for me to nod before he knocked a few times. We didn’t have to wait long, soon mum was opening the door with a big smile and bright eyes. I faked a smile as she ushered us inside. I dragged my feet down the hall as she lead us to the kitchen. Daniel brushed his hand over the small of my back as we entered and I felt myself relax. I wasn’t alone. I was right, here was here.

He was standing on the other side of the bench and he looked very different than I had pictured him in my head. He was tall, really tall. He had dirty blond hair very similar to my own. I had expected him to have short well cut hair like my dad but instead his hair was messy and longer. He looked very causal in jeans and a red shirt, I would have never picked him as a lawyer. He smiled at our entry, I didn’t have it in me to smile back right now. He dropped the tea towel he was holding and walked over to stand beside mum.

“Holly,” Mum started with a smile. “This is Jackson, your father.”